Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital (Charleston, S.C.). Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital opened in downtown in 1882. Then named St. Francis Infirmary Charleston, it was the first Catholic hospital in South Carolina. This 204-bed hospital is now affiliated with Marriottsville, Md.-based Bon Secours Health System and has since relocated to a more expansive campus outside downtown and west of the Ashley River.

The nonprofit hospital handled 8,808 admissions in the latest year for which data are available. St. Francis' emergency room hosted 45,211 patient visits, and surgeons there performed 3,298 inpatient and 8,257 outpatient surgeries. The hospital is Magnet-designated for nursing excellence and is the No. 3 hospital in South Carolina, according to U.S. News & World Report's 2015-16 rankings.

Bon Secours St. Francis hospital is equipped with the latest technology and offers patients comprehensive acute care while staying true to its mission rooted in the hospital's founding more than a century ago, when the Sisters of Charity of Our Lady of Mercy opened St. Francis Infirmary. The hospital's mission is to treat the "whole person," which includes spiritual and emotional health, not just physical illness. In keeping with this maxim, the hospital features a wheelchair-friendly meditation garden for the uses of patients, caregivers and visitors. Additionally, Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital has an on-campus Healing Boutique, where cancer patients can obtain specialty cancer care products like compression therapy garments and radiation creams. There is also a licensed cosmetologist on hand to assist with hair replacement needs and custom wig fittings.